Texas Tech football: Why the Red Raiders lost to the Jayhawks

The defense was horrendous on third down

Think back to the first two games of the year.  One of the storylines from Tech’s 2-0 start was that the defense had been one of the best in the nation on 3rd down by allowing Montana State and UTEP to convert just 4-31 3rd down attempts combined.

That proved to be more a product of the ineptitude of the opponents than the quality of the Red Raider defense.  That’s because since this team began playing actual competition, third-down has become a liability for Keith Patterson’s unit.

Against Kansas, that trend continued to the tune of 9-15 for KU on the game’s most crucial down.  That’s not going to cut it.

Making matters worse was the fact that KU converted a number of third-and-long attempts.  The two most damning were two of the Jayhawks’ biggest plays.

With Tech leading 27-14 in the third quarter, KU faced a 3rd-and-10 at their own 35.  On the next snap, QB Carter Stanley found Parchment who just ran right past Adrian Frye from the slot for a 65-yard TD catch.  This was a true momentum-turning point in the game as a stop would have given the ball back to Tech with a chance to restore a 3-score lead.  Instead, KU landed another haymaker against the beleaguered Tech defense.

In the early fourth-quarter, Tech had KU backed into a 3rd-and-21 conundrum at its own 30.  But Stanley once again went deep, this time for a 70-yard TD to Parchment to tie the game at 27-27.

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The success rate of teams facing such a ridiculously long 3rd-down opportunities is in the single digits according to this study.  That’s got to drive Texas Tech fans insane as it illustrates just how inept the defense was on Saturday.

Finally, there was the drive on which the Jayhawks tied the game at 34-34.  Twice on that drive, the home team converted a 3rd down of at least ten yards.

The third play of the drive saw KU pick up 11 yards on 3rd-and-10 when Stanley connected with Daylon Charlot for 11 yards.  Three plays later, Stanley converted a 3rd-and-14 when he hit Parchment for 14 yards to the Tech 49.   Twice, Tech should have been able to put a stop to that drive but proved unable to get off the field even in the most advantageous of down-and-distance situations.

In all, Stanley was 10-13 for 200 yards and two touchdowns on 3rd-down (at least by my unofficial count).  That’s an average of 20 yards per completion.  Anytime a team is able to move the ball against your defense with such ease on the most critical down the game has to offer, you are almost guaranteed to end up on the wrong end of the score.